Through the Haze
by Andrivette
Summary: Hiei and Mukuro are off on a seemingly normal day of patrolling when they come across something strange... One-shot.


_Through the Haze_

a fanfic by Andrivette

**Author's Note:** This is my first fanfic on here... I've got nothing much to say for the moment. There's a sexual theme in it but it's not quite what you think. Enjoy.

* * *

_Another_ day of mindless patrolling.

Hiei felt like at any moment his brain might evaporate from boredom.

But today was a better day. One of those occasional days where Mukuro saddled up and went with him on patrol. The two of them scaled over the territory of the Mukade fairly easily, so a human certainly wouldn't go unnoticed if it landed here.

Hiei was hoping there wouldn't be one, even though it gave him something to do. He was tired of staring at their confused faces and wiping out their memory, which was getting to the point of uselessness since these humans kept getting hypnosis to draw the memories out again. Why they would want to remember such a thing, he hadn't the slightest clue.

"Over there," Mukuro pointed, snapping Hiei out of his thoughts. She stalled him, heading toward the as yet uncaptured human that was wandering in the Mukade forest. An easy catch, as always. This would be over quickly.

He stopped.

Some other unfamiliar demon had gotten there before them. The demon glanced at them sheepishly when he realized they were there, and Hiei's temper flared. He was large and ugly, but obviously no match for them.

"What're you doing on my territory?" Mukuro questioned at once, and the demon's gaze flooded with fear for a moment before he checked himself. Hiei had gotten used to this from others when Mukuro spoke. He had learned enough of the reputation she had before he was around while working as her right-hand man, and it was none too pretty. But this demon had to be too ignorant to really know who was addressing him, otherwise he probably would have pissed and ran by now.

"My master needs 'em!" the demon mouthed off before quickly loping away with the human in its clutches.

"Blithering fool," Hiei muttered in annoyance, preparing to dart after him, but Mukuro stopped him. "Wait. I wanna see who this 'master' thinks he is. Let's go after 'im."

Hiei couldn't disagree. Despite his desire to cut down the impertinent idiot, following him to his so-called master would likely prove to be more entertaining.

They tailed him for an hour at most, exerting nothing to keep up with his sluggish pace. Hiei was ready to suggest scouting ahead when a cave came into view, carved out of a rock formation in the side of a hill. _Sweaty_ was the word that came to mind when he saw it. It smelled like sweat and maybe even looked like it was sweating itself. What a shithole.

Once glance at Mukuro told him she seemed to be thinking the same thing, but they had come this far. Hiei wondered how this place could have possibly stayed hidden for so long, with its obviously unskilled thralls living there. Maybe it was just unimportant enough that Mukuro had never paid it any mind. That seemed likely.

Hiei went in first, wrinkling his nose as the musk enveloped them. There was little light, but it didn't matter. He doubted anything here would have the intelligence to execute a successful ambush on himself or Mukuro alone, much less the both of them together.

"What kind of demon do ya think lives in a dump like this?" Mukuro said, seeming genuinely interested. Hiei wondered why she even _wanted_ to know.

"An obviously inadequate one," Hiei replied.

The further in they got, the brighter the lighting got, but it seemed to change. It took on a strange, dreamy quality, and it seemed to be fading into a warmer color. Red, or maybe purple.

Mukuro seemed suddenly anxious. Hiei saw it in her eyes, and in the way her body seemed tense. What could she possibly have to fear from some demon that ordered around a dope like the one they'd run into earlier? It made no sense, but she didn't explain. Did she know something he didn't?

"Let's kill it and get out of here," she said suddenly, a dark edge to her voice. What the hell was going on? Very little got on Mukuro's bad side these days, and it certainly wasn't her birthday now.

"Why so eager? I thought you wanted to know who this master was," Hiei probed, his curiosity getting the better of him. He had to bait her into telling him the truth, whatever it was that she wasn't saying to him.

"It won't matter if he's dead," she answered shortly. She was apparently not in a sharing mood. It was a good enough point, but that still didn't make him any less intrigued by her growing apprehension.

Out of the haze, the demon they had run into earlier appeared, a stupid grin on his face. Hiei wanted to slice it off, but the demon started speaking.

"You're in my master's territory now."

"And what's your point?" Hiei snapped impatiently. How he hated dealing with unintelligent drivel.

"Now master's gonna have fun with you," he finished, then loped off, Hiei assumed back to wherever he came from. The human was likely just up ahead, not that he was really all that concerned.

Then something hit him, like a tidal wave or a huge gust of wind, tongues of heat licking at him inside and out. It wasn't an attack, not really, and what it was took him off-guard.

It was arousal.

_What the-_

It certainly wasn't anything of his own desire. It had to be some other demon's power. Arousal? What the hell kind of power was that? Though it was a bit . . . disorienting, he could give that much.

He looked at Mukuro, and her expression sobered him. Pure terror mixed with blinding rage had filled her eyes, and he resisted the urge to step away from her. Whatever this apparition was, he doubted it would be alive for much longer.

Damn, but he was hard, his body insisted on reminding him. It was far beyond the point of pleasant desire and had escalated to aching lust. What a sick, foul creature. If nothing else, his pride made him want to rip its head off.

He barely gathered his wits enough to realize Mukuro had taken off ahead of him. Yes, that demon had definitely sent out a death wish. Sudden, vague memories flooded his mind as he watched her go. _Her_ memories. Chikou, and . . . yes. An apparition there, sometimes, with a power like this that was assaulting them now. How did he not see it before? The apprehension she had exuded before, it now made sense. The atmospheric changes must have been familiar to her. The thought twisted his stomach sickly. It was rare for him to feel pain for someone else, but this kind of cruelty was despicable.

To try to force her into _wanting_ her own abuse. Trying to strip away even her own hatred. No, that was unanswerable. He knew the hatred she felt became, at some point, all she owned.

Hiei fought down the rush of bodily hunger. He would not let Mukuro go alone.

.-.-.

Damn it, where had she gone?

It should have been much easier to figure it out, with Mukuro's power glowering in her rage, but his body pulsed with that horrid distraction. Thoroughly irked, Hiei rallied his senses and tugged off the strip of cloth covering his Jagan eye. In another circumstance, he might not have bothered, but speed would be key now.

_There_ she was. Much further ahead of him than he thought. He had to hurry.

Hiei trailed after her, swift on his feet. There was no telling what would happen when she reached the lust apparition. Though he did have a pretty good guess.

Mukuro's power was immense in her anger. He had tested that anger once himself, and so he knew how devastating it could become against even an ally. She could destroy this whole place and more if she wanted.

Mukuro had come to a stop. He lurched through darkly lit tunnels until at last he found himself in a wider cavern, the power pitted against him seeming to pulse from its walls, but now it seemed to fade. Mukuro stood there in the center, silent rage emanating from her core.

In her hand was the throat of another apparition, lifted into the air. He had expected this offender to be quickly destroyed, but . . .

Hiei skirted around them, just enough to see the look on Mukuro's face. Then he knew what was flashing through her mind.

_Stop wallowing in your hatred and end its life,_ he wanted to say, but he couldn't force the words out. What could he do? Was she really just mucking about in her own misery, or was she actually considering sparing its life? Had she really run this far just to stop and stare at her victim?

Then Mukuro dropped the creature and turned away. "_Don't_ capture my humans." She seemed too calm. Was this really the merciless Mukuro he knew she had been in her past, and whenever these horrible memories of hers were awakened?

What was going on in her head?

All at once the fading power rushed back with tremendous force, the apparition thinking to catch her off-guard. Hiei stifled a cry from the mere pressure of it, watching the scene unfold before him with a stunned sort of horror. Mukuro whipped around, a scream of pain and hatred tearing out of her throat, a red blast consuming the demon and everything in its wake, and the cavern shook. That kind of mercy could obviously never be considered twice.

None of this made sense. Could she really be so confused, or had she planned on killing it all along? But what would she gain from pretending to spare its life? And if she had been serious, why spare its life? It obviously deserved no mercy.

The effects of the blast began to fade away, and the power of the now-dead apparition removed its claws. Somewhere in the smoke, Mukuro said, "Hiei. Get the human." And that was all.

.-.-.

Everyone in the fortress was wary.

Wherever Mukuro went, they had seen the grave look on her face, and word had swept through quickly. No one was eager to piss her off, and so no one was eager to face her at all. Hiei could easily tell all this from the emptiness of Mukuro's hallway.

He had arrived later after taking care of the human and sending it back to its world. He couldn't shake from his mind the tone of her voice, and the curiosity of what her expression had been in her last words to him in the cavern. He wondered if she looked the same now, even after it was over, and he wondered what she had been thinking in that cave. It was all so much to contemplate, and he wanted answers.

The door wasn't locked. It never was, but for some reason this surprised him now. He was almost certain she didn't want to see him of all people today. He knew her dark secrets. But she had shared these with him willingly, he reminded himself. She undoubtedly realized she had no right to turn him away now.

Mukuro was laying on her side, facing away from the door. He stood there, as if awaiting recognition before he got comfortable. The silence seem to eat at them.

"Why did you follow me?" she said suddenly.

At first he wanted to scoff. It was natural to him at the time, but now that he thought about it, it was a good question. He hadn't even bothered to stop and ask himself then. "I'm your second in command," he said vaguely, not entirely sure himself yet.

Mukuro shook her head. "You could've been hurt and you knew it."

Why did it matter so much? he wanted to ask. But it was a stupid question. "You might have killed the human. That was my concern," he lied, but it was a reasonable enough excuse.

She turned her head a little. "You're a bad liar," she reminded him.

"Why ask if you know I'll lie to you then?" he snapped impatiently.

Mukuro looked at him, her good eye widening. He admitted to not telling the truth, and the truth implied much more than he was ready to say. He turned away, uncomfortable. "I followed you. It doesn't need to be any more complicated."

It seemed she resigned her questions now, and settled back down on her bed. Hiei sat in his chair, watching her. "What compelled you to release that demon?" he asked, deciding it was his turn for questions now.

They sat in silence again, and Hiei urged on, "Well?"

Mukuro stared at the wall. "With everything different now, guess I was trying to be different, too."

"By showing mercy to an undeserving cretin who assaulted you as soon as you turned your back to it? Your logic eludes me. I don't see-" She looked hard at him, and he bit off the rest of his statement.

"I just remembered the world's not to blame for everything that happened to me. I just thought of you and the others, and decided I didn't really wanna kill. Right then, that was all that mattered."

Her words gripped a place inside of him, that yawning chasm of darkness that had enveloped his soul for most of his life, and strangled it. If she could make something more than killing out of the desolation she called a life, then he had hope in that for himself.

Hope? When had that emotion crept into his life, again? And yet, in these past years, it began to shine some bright, confusing light into him. And he realized he didn't mind that at all.

"I . . . see," he said finally, and Mukuro smiled at him. That rare smile, when she was really pleased, when it almost seemed like she didn't have a care in the world.

And for whatever reason, Hiei smiled, too.

...

Obviously there's 3 parts to it, but I decided to upload it all as one. It's relatively short, anyway. I just wanted to imagine a situation between Hiei and Mukuro that might be tense but help each other break through barriers in the end. I hope I've portrayed them both pretty well, in my own way. -Andri


End file.
